Raider Red Meats Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce
Background
Raider Red Meats is the brand name of the products produced by the Meat Science and Muscle Biology Program at Texas Tech. The program began in 1933 and is part of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources where students get hands-on experience producing a wide variety of meat products as well as some seasonings, sauces, and merchandise. All the money made from sales goes back into the student program, primarily funding program scholarships. In their barbecue line-up, Raider Red Meats has two unique sauces and six different rubs that are sold online and at their on-campus store.
Aroma
A well balanced mixture of tomato, vinegar, honey, and smoke creates a hallmark barbecue profile from the first whiff. A deeper noseful releases notes of mustard, molasses, garlic, and fruity pepper. There's definitely more layers in the aroma as well, but from there it's difficult to pick out individual ingredients because most everything melds well with each other.
Thickness & Texture
This maroon sauce has a glossy sheen and very smooth texture. The consistency is extra syrupy and the thickness sits right at the medium mark. Probably due to the dark hue, it's hard to see any spices except for a few small black specs here and there. From a suspended spoon, the sauce falls at an average rate and in a steady and smooth stream. There's numerous slower drips before the sauce pour ceases and leaves a thin coating left clinging to the silverware and in it you can clearly see a lot of small red spice bits.
Out of the Jar
A sugary sweet start first gains some additional flavor with tastes of honey followed by tomato, creating a ketchup-like character. Soon after that, the sauce gains a lot of complexity all at once, which makes it a little tricky to pinpoint individual components. There's no doubt that vinegar helps temper the sweetness at this point, and molasses combines with the honey to add depth to the sugar. There's also a sharpness to the sauce that tastes like it's likely a combo of mustard, garlic, and spicy peppers. As the sauce makes its exit from the mouth, a mellow background smokiness becomes more prominent while vinegar and peppers ramp up, as they often too. Still, sweet tomato lingers and makes sure the tart and spicy aftertaste continues to have a full barbecue flavor.
Slathered & Cooked
The sauce brushed onto the chicken in a medium, even layer that set in exemplary fashion. This helped prevent almost all sauce loss over the more unforgiving direct heat, while there was good browning without any burning. The first few bites brought a sweet, bright tomato flavor, while after that is when heat and depth entered to form a flavor similar to what was tasted in the uncooked state. The increase in sweetness though meant that the spice level remained scaled back after being cooked, although this sauce certainly would still fall into the "spicy" category.
Put to Use
A sauce produced by, and directly benefiting, students is a first in my long line of reviews. That strikes at things that can pull at my heart and I'm not sure if that influenced my impression of the sauce, but this was one that I was quite fond of. The syrupy texture and prime grilling traits lands this sauce in the realm of those well suited for competition since it creates one beauty of a piece of chicken with a sweet tomato flavor that's universally pleasing. Where this sauce went further was the depth built by mustard, garlic, pepper, and other spices which all came together in a way that keep me guessing at the exact ingredients at play, but remained undoubtedly delicious all the time. More of these flavors were present out of the jar, but since this sauce performed like champ on the grill, I don't think there's one application I can say is better than the other. There will be a lot to love if you choose to use this as a condiment on burgers, for chicken, and the like, or if you opt to brush it on grilled wings, salmon, smoked ribs, etc.
